The Orwell Prize

2007 SPECIAL prize winner

SPECIAL prize winner

BBC Newsnight

At the ceremony for the Orwell Prize 2007, a Special Prize was awarded to Newsnight, BBC2’s flagship current affairs programme.

When we were discussing the many very fine pieces of journalism that were submitted Newsnight just spontaneously emerged in our deliberations as the most precious and authoritative home for proper reporting of important stories, beautifully and intelligently crafted by journalists of rare distinction.

We unanimously believed that its values of objective intelligent news ought to be rewarded. We did not set out to award this prize – it plays a role in the collective intelligence of the nation.

The judges
Special Prize

When Newsnight won the Orwell Prize in 2007 we felt honoured for two reasons. First, this was not a competition we had entered – the judges had simply decided that the work we do on Newsnight deserved recognition. And second, we were delighted to be associated with a prize which seeks to celebrate the principles of Orwell’s journalism – to make politics and political thought accessible and artful.